PRAIRIE GROVE – Like building a toy town with Legos, Jean Smith and other village residents Wednesday night mapped out their dream town center using colorful wooden blocks.

“We need something that is central so people can congregate, something with some green not just concrete,” said Smith at the workshop where she and other residents gave input into the proposed Prairie Grove Town Center and Transit Oriented Development Plan, being led Evanston-based Teska Associates.

The targeted area for development is north of Gracy Road, with initial plans to develop a town center with a 1-mile radius around a Metra station, said Konstantine Savoy, project manager and principal with Evanston-based Teska Associates.

The idea is to “make this a very walkable, pedestrian-friendly area,” said Peter Lemmon, senior transportation engineer with Metro Transportation Group, Inc.